Chapter 28

I am facing more grief than I can handle at the moment. Then add on my new professional hockey career and the fact that my biggest nightmare might walk free in a few months, and you get a piece of glass about to shatter into a million unsalvageable pieces.

Here’s to hoping everything doesn’t fall apart, because there’s no waking up from my fall.

I had a confession to make.

For being known as the ice queen of the hockey world both emotionally and physically, I was a sucker for cuddling. There was nothing better than waking up in the morning to the feeling of someone’s arms around you, keeping you warm and holding your body close. For someone who lived in the cold, it was heaven on earth.

Probably because I was majorly crushing on him, but that’s not the point.

You see, usually when we woke up I would get the alarm of my iPhone on my bedside table so I was generally the first one to pry myself out of the comfortable position I had slept in. This morning was no different, except my alarm wasn’t supposed to go off on Saturday morning.

And it wasn’t my alarm that woke me up.

Instead it was the pounding knock on the door of Seb and I’s apartment. I forced my eyes open and dragged myself out of bed, leaving the warm touch of Beck and trading it for the cold caress of the floor on my feet and the piercing daylight through the blinds. It only took one glance at my clock on the wall for me to notice it was already

Ten thirty. It was most likely the fool I lived with returning from the grocery store only to realize he forgot his key to the apartment. Why Sebastian didn’t keep it with his car key was beyond my comprehension.

The doorbell rang again only to be followed by another two knocks as I exited my bedroom. “Coming!” I yelled in annoyance. When I finally reached the heavy white door and unlocked the silver handle, the door opened to reveal my worst nightmare.

I froze on instinct, blinking to make sure this wasn’t some dream or hallucination. Nope. Standing in front of me was still the five foot eleven dirty blonde who could pass for a model with her skinny curves and lanky legs. Those emerald green eyes stared down at me like a mirror, standing out even more than her wrinkle free forehead patterned with freckles so faint you could barely see them on her pink toned, pale skin.

For a five foot five girl with larger than average curves, one might have difficulty putting the woman in front of me and a six foot four, skinny man who looked like the love child of Lucky Blue Smith and Anderson Cooper, together to produce me. Then you looked at my mothers sharp jaw, sparkling eyes, and dirty blonde hair and added it to my father’s pale complexion and high cheekbones; it became very evident very quickly that my face was the product of my parents best genes.

As for my height, well, they say that comes from the grandparents so maybe the relatives I never knew had short and curvy figures.

I was so shell shocked that I didn’t even have time to slam the door in her face before she slipped past me, walking into my apartment. “Are you that lazy that you’re still sleeping at ten thirty?” she poshly remarked like that wasn’t a normal thing to do, scanning me up

And down and taking note that a white T-shirt was the only thing on my body.

“This is the one day I don’t have practice at six in the morning. Excuse me for enjoying life,” I quipped sarcastically. It became clear to me that she was planning on having a nice chat when her black handbag dropped from her elbow to her hand, placing it on the floor. I took that as a cue to close the door because my neighbors definitely didn’t want to hear the screaming match about to ensue. “What are you doing here, Elizabeth?”

Maybe I was egging her on, but she was the one who walked in and started criticizing me before even saying hello.

My mother opened her mouth to respond when she was cut off the the deep voice of my captain walking out of my bedroom in nothing but a pair of adidas trainers. “Tell Sebastian next time he forgets his keys he should just sit outside and wait for someone to save his sorry-“ Beck stopped mid sentence when he looked up from running his right hand through his jet black hair, his left hand in his pocket.

His face quickly went emotionless and unamused when he saw the striking resemblance between the woman next to me and myself, obviously noting that she must be my mother. “I’ll just-,” Beck started to suggest, going to turn on his heel when my mother cut him off.

“No. Stay. I’d love to have a nice conversation with Danielle and her boyfriend,” Elizabeth spoke patronizingly, her eyes scanning Beck’s defined and perfectly symmetrical muscle tone alone with his deep V-line and razor jaw. No wonder she couldn’t stay loyal. Elizabeth and my dad both had the wandering eyes of a fifteen year old boy.

“He’s not my boy-“

“So you sleep with every man you

Meet?” Her pompous tone vibrated in my ears. I didn’t miss the suggestion in her eyes as they zeroed in on the hickey on my neck from last week, my lack of a bra, and the T-shirt that clearly wasn’t mine considering it stoped below my ass. She knew Seb was my roommate somehow, and Beck clearly looked nothing like the African American defender. “You were very hostile in your response to my text, Danielle Malton. You seem to forget your place; I am your mother, not some stranger who deserves no respect. I politely asked you to come see your brothers before they go to college and what do I get? Nothing put attitude.”

“It’s Riley,” I corrected her without feeling any remorse. “And would you rather I didn’t respond at all like Griffin?”

Her nostrils flared and her jaw clenched aa she pointed at me with a perfectly manicured mauve finger. “It is not Riley, you fucking ungrateful

Little-“

“It’s legally my name. For someone who kicked me out at fif-fucking-teen, you sure care a lot about my choice of surname,” I shot back while crossing my arms, suddenly forgetting that Beck was watching our argument impassively.

“I didn’t kick you out. I suggested you spend time with your brother and stop that stupid sport. Next thing I know you live with him and you play hockey on a men’s team. I told you to drop it,” she seethed. “If you had listened to me that incident with that coach never would have happened in the first place!”

My blood was boiling underneath my skin so rapidly I was probably on the verge of death. Even Beck winced at her choice of words. “First of all, you locked me out of the fucking house when I refused to quit hockey because you were being an overbearing bitch. Second of all, he was a trainer for the men’s and women’s team so it wouldn’t have even mattered,” I seethed back at her. “Do not come to my home unannounced and act like I fucked up when you were the one who wouldn’t let me get a surgery that was instrumental to my quality of life out of spite. You are the fuck up, not me.”

“Do not insult me, Danielle Rene Malton. Know your place; you might scare off your boyfriend with your blatant disrespect,” she turned her nose up on me and crossed her dainty arms at my outrage.

“I won’t be scared off by someone who stands up for themselves,” Beck interjected with a blank look. He might have wanted me to fight my own battles, but for some reason that made my heart swell and my blood cool marginally.

My mother’s glare shot to Beck like he had burned her. “It’s a shame,”

She exhaled before turning back to me. “You and your brother could not have worse taste in partners. Do you only look at their bodies? You must, considering how you look. How much of that is really natural?” She quipped while eyeing my hips and my fuller breasts. My jaw dropped at her insult, taking it extremely personally.

I wished I looked like her. I would never pay to look like I do. If I was a twig with her beautiful curves my life would be so much easier. I wanted more than anything to be tall with an athletic build. I hated the way I looked sometimes because I knew the one asshole who ruined my like had targeted me specifically because I was his type.

I couldn’t even make a noise before her forest iris’ landed on a picture on the glass coffee table. Her louboutin heals clicked on the grey toned wooden floor as she took a few steps towards the table, picking up the frame. It was a

Picture Jason had taken last Christmas with Finn, Sylvia, the kids, their fathers, Sebastian, and myself. Seb really was part of our family.

Her eyes didn't linger on her ex-husband whose namesake I had taken. Instead, her attention went right to Sylvia and I. “That fucking whore. She ruined my son, and look what she’s done to you. You look more like her every day,” she put the picture down harshly, her fierce eyes glaring at me. “Women should not have muscles like that, Danielle. It’s not proper. Not to mention that hideous black smear on your arm. Are you proud of what you have become without your mother?”

My jaw set. “How dare you come into my apartment, insult me, then have the nerve to act like you are a mother to me. You are nothing but a painful memory that keeps me awake at night.”

Her petite nose wrinkled In disgust. “You are nothing without your mother,

Danielle. I came here in good faith to try and reconnect my children and I get nothing but slander. Do you see your father here?” No, because unlike some people, he respects my wishes to be alone.

“No. You are on a horrible path to failure, Danielle Malton, and you have that stupid whore guiding you down that path. I gave you a chance to admit you were wrong and return to this family but you blew that chance to smithereens. Without me you’ve turned into a dumb attention whore who spreads her legs for any man who can get her what she wants. First Jenson, now your captain,” she gestured at Beck. My eyes were about to start watering after she called Jenson Spack a choice, but I would hide my tears until she wasn’t watching me. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

“When there’s no one left; your boyfriend, your fake father, roommate, that Mason devil, that is when you will

Back on this family. Any one of your three brothers are worth four times more than your stupid ass.” She picked up her bag from the floor and looked down at me, getting in my face. Her voice was noticeably calmer but still loud enough for Beck to hear every degrading and embarrassing thing she said to me. “When everything falls apart and you are left wondering what a pitiful mess you have become, remember this moment. Remember when you disrespected me and turned your back on the Malton family, because you are not a Riley. You are nothing without me.”

With that she shouldered past me with her skinny body, slamming the door behind her as she left.

That’s my one and only mother, everyone.

Aren’t you fucking proud?